Scott AFB Pilot Among 4 Killed In Afghanistan

28-year-old Capt. Brandon Cyr of Woodbridge, Va. Cyr had been stationed at Scott Air Force Base and died in a weekend plane crash in Afghanistan.

(Scott Air Force Base)

The U.S. Department of Defense says one of four Air Force members killed in a weekend plane crash in Afghanistan was a pilot who had been stationed at Scott Air Force Base in southwestern Illinois.

The department says 28-year-old Capt. Brandon Cyr of Woodbridge, Va., died in Saturday's crash of an Air Force MC-12 aircraft.

The cause of the crash is under investigation. The Pentagon says there were no reports of enemy activity in the area at the time of the crash.

Cyr was an instructor pilot and member of the 906th Air Refueling Squadron within the 375th Air Mobility Wing based at Scott. The base also says Cyr flew with members of the Illinois Air National Guard's 126th Air Refueling Wing.

Col. Peter Nezamis, commander of the 126th Air Refueling Wing, said Cyr "left his personal mark on everything he did."

"You could not have spent five minutes in a room with him and not be impressed with his energy, desire and quest for knowledge," Nezamis said of Cyr. "Brandon volunteered for this assignment and it was the mission more than any other he wanted the most."

The Belleville News Democrat reports workers will be informed that they must take one day per week of unpaid vacation between next month and September because of mandatory federal budget cuts referred to as the "sequester."

The newspaper says the workers will receive the 30-day notices in the mail by the end of the week.

Earlier this week the Obama Admiration released a state-by-state breakdown of the $85 billion in cuts slated to kick in on Friday.

The report details cuts to expenditures ranging from teachers and schools, to air-traffic control, to public health and head start. Among the line-items slated for the largest cuts is military readiness and defense, or more specifically by civilians working for the Department of Defense.

Hundreds of local Air National Guard jobs are on the chopping block as part of the Defense Department’s plan to cut $500 billion over the next decade.

Missouri Congressman Todd Akin, chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, says more than 700 servicemen at Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis and Scott Air Force Base near Belleville, Ill. may lose their jobs by the end of the fiscal year.

The St. Louis native was the first female graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy to be killed in combat. Now, a new memorial honors her life and death - a plaque under the flagpole at the Jewish Community Center in Creve Coeur.

Schulte was traveling from a refugee camp to Bagram Air Force Base when the bomb hit on May 20, 2009. She was one of 461 American soldiers killed in action that year.

Military men and women who serve overseas encounter dangerous situations and often struggle with separation from family and friends.

The same is true of journalists who embed themselves with soldiers.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch chief photographer J.B. Forbes, who has worked at the newspaper since 1975, and reporter Jesse Bogan recently returned from Afghanistan. They were embedded with about 100 members of the Missouri National Guard’s 1138th Engineer Company, covering and sharing the stories of soldiers who have temporarily left their civilian jobs.